FOREIGN ASSISTANCE LEGISLATION FOR FISCAL YEARS 1990-91 THURSDAY, JUNE 15, 1989 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Washington, DC. The committee met, in open markup session at 3:48 p.m., in room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Dante B. Fascell, chairman presiding. Chairman FASCELL. The committee will come to order. We have three items of business today. One is reporting the clean foreign assistance bill. The second is reporting a technical report on budget allocations, and finally consideration of a bill authorizing funding for Commerce Department export administration activities. This bill has been reported by the Subcommittee on International Economic Policy and Trade. The first order of business is to report H.R. 2655, the International Cooperation Act of 1989. H.R. 2655 incorporates the amendments adopted during consideration of the committee print and the technical, clerical and conforming amendments which were made pursuant to unanimous consent agreement. Under bipartisan agreement, the specific changes are as follows. The fair pricing authority has been made effective in fiscal year 1991, thus avoiding the need for a budget waiver. The debt relief for drug eradication has also been made effective in fiscal year 1991 for the same purpose. The two entitlement provisions regarding retirement benefits have been deleted in order to avoid the need for budget waivers. Since these two provisions were requested by the executive branch, we will explore the possibility of adding them on the floor. That is the only way we can do it. Otherwise, we could not get it through the Budget Committee. We will have a conforming budget amendment at the end of the bill as soon as we find out from the administration what the numbers are, depending on the final actions on the bill. And Mr. Broomfield and I will offer that. At the start of debate on the bill, we will announce to the House that we will offer this amendment, as the Snowe amendment was offered to the State Department bill. She developed a very wise strategy. And we are going to follow the same strategy so that we will be within the budget allocation when we get through the bill. The Chief of Staff will report the title. Mr. BRADY. "H.R. 2655, a bill to amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961——” Chairman FASCELL. Without objection, further reading of the bill will be dispensed with and printed in the record in full.1 Chairman FASCELL. The question is- Mr. WEISS. Mr. Chairman. Chairman FASCELL. Mr. Weiss has a statement. Mr. WEISS. Mr. Chairman, I ask recognition for the purpose of giving you a report on the status of the amendment regarding the Overseas Private Investment Corporation which I offered on June 6th, the Tuesday right after the weekend of the massacres in Beijing. At that time I withdrew that amendment at the request of the distinguished Chairman of the Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee as well as some others because we had the China resolution on the Floor at that time. I will be offering that amendment on behalf of myself, Mr. Solarz, and Mr. Yatron on the Floor when the Floor consideration comes up, and if necessary we will be seeking permission from the Rules Committee for permission to offer the amendment. Chairman FASCELL. I do not think that will be necessary, but you can check to make sure about that. Mr. WEISS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Chairman FASCELL. Are there any further comments? [No response.] Chairman FASCELL. If not, the Chief of Staff will call the roll. Chairman FASCELL. Aye. Mr. BRADY. Mr. Hamilton? Mr. BRADY. Mr. Yatron? Mr. YATRON. Aye. Mr. BRADY. Mr. Solarz? [No response.] Mr. BRADY. Mr. Studds? Mr. STUDDS. No. Mr. BRADY. Mr. Wolpe? Mr. WOLPE. Aye. Mr. BRADY. Mr. Crockett? Mr. CROCKETT. Aye. Mr. BRADY. Mr. Gejdenson? Mr. GEJDENSON. Aye. Mr. BRADY. Mr. Dymally? Mr. DYMALLY. Aye. Mr. BRADY. Mr. Lantos? Mr. LANTOS. Aye. Mr. BRADY. Mr. Kostmayer? Mr. KOSTMAYER. Aye. Mr. BRADY. Mr. Torricelli? Chairman FASCELL. Aye by proxy. Mr. BRADY. Mr. Smith? Chairman FASCELL. Aye by proxy. Mr. BRADY. Mr. Berman? Mr. BERMAN. Aye. Mr. OWENS. Aye. Mr. BRADY. Mr. Johnston? Mr. JOHNSTON. Aye. Mr. BRADY. Mr. Engel? Mr. ENGEL. Aye. Mr. BRADY. Mr. Faleomavaega? Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Aye. Mr. BRADY. Mr. Bosco? [No response.] Mr. BRADY. Mr. McCloskey? Chairman FASCELL. Aye by proxy. Mr. BRADY. Mr. Payne? [No response.] Mr. BRADY. Mr. Broomfield? Mr. BROOMFIELD. Aye. Mr. BRADY. Mr. Gilman? Mr. GILMAN. Aye. Mr. BRADY. Mr. Lagomarsino? Mr. LAGOMARSINO. Aye. Mr. BRADY. Mr. Leach? [No response.] Mr. BRADY. Mr. Roth? Mr. ROTH. No. Mr. BRADY. Ms. Snowe? Ms. SNOWE. Aye. Mr. BRADY. Mr. Hyde? [No response.] Mr. BRADY. Mr. Bereuter? Mr. BEREUTER. No. Mr. BRADY. Mr. Smith? Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Aye. Mr. BRADY. Mr. DeWine? Mr. BROOMFIELD. No by proxy. Mr. BRADY. Mr. Burton? [No response.] Mr. BRADY. Ms. Meyers? Ms. MEYERS. Aye. Mr. BRADY. Mr. Miller? Mr. MILLER. Aye. Mr. BRADY. Mr. Lukens? [No response.] Mr. BRADY. Mr. Blaz? Mr. BROOMFIELD. Aye by proxy. Mr. GALLEGLY. Aye. Mr. BRADY. Mr. Houghton? Mr. BRADY. Mr. Goss? Mr. Goss. Aye. Chairman FASCELL. Without objection, the ranking Republican and I have agreed to leave the vote open until 4:15 to give other members a chance to be recorded. Is there objection? [No response.] Chairman FASCELL. If not, so ordered.1 Now we have a technical matter to consider. The members have before them a committee report to the House on the allocation of budget totals under the first concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 1990. We have not been required to file this report in recent years because the committee has not had under consideration any measures creating new budget or entitlement authority. The bill just ordered reported contains two provisions which would create new budget authority in fiscal year 1991 under the terms of the Congressional Budget Act. Under these circumstances, the committee is required to make this report to the House in order to avoid a point of order against the bill under Section 302(b) of the Budget Act. Are there any questions? [No response.] Chairman FASCELL. If not, without objection, the filing of the report is so ordered. [Whereupon the committee proceeded to other business.] Now Mr. Broomfield will discuss the rule on the foreign aid bill. Mr. BROOMFIELD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The chairman and I have agreed that we would ask for one hour of general debate on the bill and eight hours on amendments. The chairman and I would be able to get together in limiting time on amendments depending on the number of amendments that will be under consideration. Beyond that if there are amendments printed in the record, they would be allowed five minutes on each side after the eight hours have been used. That would be four hours on each side. The other thing would be that I would be permitted to offer a substitute bill at the appropriate time. Chairman FASCELL. There is a difference with this year's rules. Let me explain. Last time, we had a rule which required printing of all amendments in the record. We did not do that this time. We went for an open rule. This is because there were reasonably strong objections on both sides of the aisle with respect to any kind of a modified open rule. Rather than get into a struggle on this The vote on final passage of H.R. 3655 was 37 ayes to 4 nays. issue, we decided to just go with an open rule and reached agreement on an eight hour time limit. That means that any amendment which has not yet come up once the eight hours has expired would simply be read and voted on. If somebody decided that they wanted extra protection, they could print it in the record and under the rules of the House would be assured of their five minutes. So everybody is protected. Mr. Dymally. Mr. DYMALLY. Mr. Chairman, I certainly want to commend the gentleman for going to this open rule because the only major objection we had to the State Department authorization bill was the closed rule. Chairman FASCELL. I thank the gentleman for his comment. As I said, the complaint we had came from both sides of the aisle. Our leadership was reluctant to do it and so was the minority leadership, so Congressman Broomfield and I decided we would go with an open rule. Now we are going to need your help, all of you. We go to the Rules Committee on Tuesday, we will be on the floor Wednesday and Thursday until we finish. Those of you who have responsibilities with respect to titles of the bill, please be there to defend your title, because that is the only way this is going to work. I am going to ask the subcommittee chairmen and the ranking members of the subcommittees to take the lead when their titles come up, and that means working the amendments. We will give you as much help as we can on this. If you recall, two years ago we had 234 amendments and we worked them all, every single one of them. I do not say that they were all satisfactory but we worked them to get the bill passed. Those members who are not on this committee, they feel that they have a right to have their say in foreign policy, so it is up to us to work with them to the best of our ability. And I again want to thank the members on both sides and the staff who have worked so hard on this bill. I thank all of you very much. Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Chairman. Chairman FASCELL. Mr. Payne. Mr. PAYNE. I would like to record my vote as yes. Chairman FASCELL. Thank you, Mr. Payne. The committee stands adjourned. [Whereupon, at 4:03 p.m., the committee was adjourned, subject to the call of the Chair.] |